Going Merry (ゴーイングメリー号) | One Piece - Putting Together the Painted, Panel-lined, and Water Decaled Parts/Sub-Assemblies

 Despite the gargantuan task facing me, all the parts and sub-assemblies of the Going Merry pirate ship is finally either fully-painted or at the very least panel-lined, and where required, the appropriate water decals have been applied. To make the painting process less daunting, I had broken up the task into smaller and more manageable bits comprising myriad of parts/sub-assemblies by sections e.g. deck, hull, mast, sail, rigging, trees, etc. spread over a period of three months (plus assembly).

Going Merry's Central Deck: Painted parts all laid out and ready for assembly

Going Merry's Central Deck: Fully-assembled, isometric view

Going Merry's Central Deck: Fully-assembled, reverse isometric view

 This particular blog post deals only with the assembly of the painted, panel-lined, and decaled parts. Details of the painting process itself will be posted in my other blog i.e. Shire Works as a behind-the-scenes look at the step-by-step process that was involved in the painting of the Going Merry.

Going Merry's Hull, Rudder & Cannons: Painted parts all laid out and ready for assembly

Going Merry's Hull, Rudder, Cannons & Central Deck: Parts all laid out and ready for assembly

Going Merry's Anchor & Rope: Former is panel-lined with its stock painted, while the latter is in its original state

Going Merry work-in-progress: Hull, Rudder, Central Deck, Cannons, & Anchor assembled

 Going Merry has been painted using either lacquer or acrylic paints depending on the areas concerned. In places where I could airbrush I tend to use lacquer paints while in places where I have to paint by hand I tend to use acrylic paints. Meanwhile, any panel-lining or weathering is done by hand with a brush and the relevant enamel paints. As mentioned earlier, step-by-step details of the painting process will be posted in my other blog i.e. the Shire Works blog.

Display stand/base for Going Merry: Fully-painted parts prior to assembly

Display stand/base for Going Merry: Fully-painted parts after assembly

Work-in-progress build of the Going Merry with its completed display stand/base

 In the project's early stages, I had decided to paint the display stand (see above) because I knew I would need something for the partially-assembled ship to rest on while the assembly process is ongoing. I wasn't too worried about scratching the paints off the display stand or off the bottom of the hull because lacquer paints tend to be resilient once they dry properly. I was more worried about the ship not having anyplace stable to rest on, seeing that the bottom of its hull is convex shaped. Just letting the ship rest on its side will more often than not lead to parts being eventually broken.

Going Merry work-in-progress build: front isometric view, from the top

Going Merry work-in-progress build: front isometric view, from the side

Going Merry work-in-progress build: side view, from the left

 Of all the parts of the ship, the ship's hull was the most challenging to paint. It required tons of masking because not only were there are three different colors on the hull, all the differently colored sections were mixed among each other in terms of location i.e. they were not cleanly separated from each other. I'm pretty sure I'm not explaining the issue correctly enough to explain the masking I had to face. It's best to see it for yourself, just not in this blog unfortunately. It would've made this post too lengthy so I had to separate the information into a different post in my other blog.

Going Merry work-in-progress build: side view, from the right

Going Merry work-in-progress build: back isometric view, from the side

Going Merry work-in-progress build: back isometric view, from the top

 Following the completion of the ship's hull, it was time to move on to the painted parts of the front/rear deck and shed (see below). First to be attached to the hull was the front/rear decks followed by the railings and the shed, both of which were attached onto the deck itself. All this before even moving on to the main/secondary sails and masts as well as rigging and ropes.

Going Merry's Front/Rear Deck: Painted parts all laid out and ready for assembly

Going Merry's Shed: Painted parts all laid out and ready for assembly

 Unlike the front/rear deck and shed, the main sail/mast had to be put together into a sub-assembly before they can be attached to the deck. Most noticeable item in this part of the assembly process was the water decal Straw Hat pirate symbols on the main mast and flag. There is actually one more pirate symbol on the secondary flag which sits atop the secondary mast, speaking of which ...

Going Merry's Main Mast & Crow's Nest: Painted parts all laid out and ready for assembly

Going Merry's Main Mast/Sail/Pirate Flag & Crow's Nest: Painted parts ready for assembly

Going Merry's Main Mast & Sail: Fully-assembled and ready to be attached to the main deck

 While the main sail retained its original pearl-like luminescence look, the secondary sail had its look significantly changed through painting. The red stripes had to be airbrushed on using a custom-mix red lacquer paint while the metal parts that attach to the spar were painted with gun metal acrylic paint. The spar and masts had a combination of lacquer and enamel paint, and the flag was painted black using lacquer paint. The rigging/ropes were weathered with enamel paint, and finally the pirate symbol - like the earlier two - was a high quality water decal provided with the kit.

Going Merry's Secondary Mast, Sail, & Pirate Flag: Painted parts ready for assembly

Going Merry's Orange Trees: Painted parts all laid out and ready for assembly

Going Merry's Secondary Mast/Sail/Pirate Flag & Orange Trees: Painted parts ready for assembly

Going Merry's Secondary Mast/Sail/Pirate Flag & Orange Trees: Sub-assemblies completed

 Once all the above parts/sub-assemblies were completed, they could then be attached onto the ship's hull (see below). Even at this late stage of the assembly, the Going Merry still seemed to lack something that made it look somewhat incomplete. And it wasn't the obvious parts like the figurehead and the rest of its railings which will be attached on in the final stage. Before you scroll down, can you guess what it is? Well, it's something we take for granted when we look at an old sailing ship like the Going Merry, which is incidentally based on the 15th-century Portuguese caravel. It tends to become the 'white noise' equivalent of a visible thing. What is it? It's the rigging and ropes.

Going Merry work-in-progress: Ship with masts, sails, shed, and trees attached (front isometric view)

Going Merry work-in-progress: Ship with masts, sails, shed, and trees attached (back isometric view)

 Assembling the rigging and ropes onto the Going Merry at this late stage was more nerve wracking than expected because half the time I was afraid to break something while trying to attach the rigging and ropes. This situation is best seen in a video I uploaded on my YouTube channel, link here => https://youtu.be/ZV6EYIVJ4Kg

Going Merry's Rigging and Ropes: Painted parts all laid out and ready to be attached to the ship

Going Merry work-in-progress: Ship with rigging and ropes attached (front isometric view)

Going Merry work-in-progress: Ship with rigging and ropes attached (back isometric view)

 Finally there was only two things left to do before the Going Merry could be marked as being complete. Well, almost complete as I have yet to paint the miniatures of its crew, but that's a story for another day. So the last two main sections left to be assembled was the rest of the ship's railing as well as its most iconic part, namely the ram figurehead. Only after attaching them was the ship finally done!

Going Merry Figurehead and rest of Railings: Panel-lined and ready for assembly

One Piece Going Merry pirate ship: Painted Build Completed (isometric front view)

One Piece Going Merry pirate ship: Painted Build Completed (isometric back view)

 More photos or images of the completed Going Merry will be uploaded in a later post, together with a video showing closeup 360 degree views of the ship. For now, I'm going to take my leave after this long post. Thank you so much for taking the time to view it. Until next time, be well and be happy! 

Going Merry (ゴーイングメリー号) | One Piece - Unboxing & Pre-Assembly Review

 Going Merry holds an extremely special place in my hobby-life because it is the first scale model kit I had bought in my adult life, about 12 years ago. And yet it was a kit that I never had the confidence to tackle ... until now. Only after a fair amount of years since I first picked up a brush to paint miniatures did I find the self-confidence to attempt work on the iconic pirate ship Going Merry from the One Piece anime. Below then is an unboxing of the Bandai plastic model kit as well as a pre-assembly review of the runners, sprues, and parts that make up this iconic One Piece pirate ship.

Bandai plastic model kit of the One Piece Going Merry pirate ship (front box art)

Top, side, front, and back views of Going Merry, plus a Luffy kit that's sold separately (side box art)

A painted build of Going Merry: isometric and detailed closeup views (side box art)

Box art on short end of the scale model kit box/package; shows poses of the figures included

 Looking back at an old photo (see below), it was understandable why the kit was so daunting to a newbie like me way back then. The main reason I got the kit was to paint the crew and captain of Going Merry in the anime's early seasons - namely miniatures of Luffy, Zorro, Usopp, Nami, Sanji, and Tony Tony Chopper. Unfortunately I had no idea how to go about it and through lack of info back then ... I just gave up. To add salt to the wound, a fair number of the plastic parts in this kit were not color accurate, and required painting. Is was too much work for a newbie that was also a perfectionist.

A 12-year old photo image of the runners/sprues etc. included in the Going Merry scale mode kit

 Opening up the box now, the gears in my head is constantly turning as my mind throws up a myriad of suggestions for painting the Going Merry ship and its pirate crew. Moreover armed with a better understanding of the basic techniques helps me to approach projects like this with greater confidence. And that simple feeling can be the difference between a project starting or getting shelved. And I'm not getting any younger so I had better finish this kit before my old hands give out on me.

Reopened after over a decade in cold storage with all the runners/sprues already out of their bags

Front cover of the Going Merry instruction booklet; showing a painted build of the ship

Back cover of the Going Merry instruction booklet; with color guide for the ship and its crew

Instructions are in Japanese but the diagrams are easy to understand without having to use Google Translate

 For a scale model kit that's more than 12 years old, the parts found inside is kind of a mixed bag. The quality ranges from great to disappointing. Some things I love about this kit are the wood grain texture molded onto the wood parts, the semi-opaque main sail with its semi-gloss finish, and the detailed miniatures of the crew of Going Merry aka the Straw Hat Pirates. Things I hate are the lack of color accuracy in a lot of the parts, for example the ship's hull, masts, secondary sail, and rigging. Now I don't really consider the miniature figures to be color inaccurate because they are too small to be molded in the correct colors hence they will always require painting to look halfway decent.

Sprue A: Multi-colored parts comprising the ship's crew, shed, cannons, and miscellaneous items

Sprue B: Semi-opaque part that is the ship's main sail

Sprue C: Ship's side/rear hull and its rudder; all of it is in brown meaning low color accuracy

Sprue D: Parts for the ship's deck with good wood grain texture and base color

Sprue E: Parts for the ship's masthead and railings in an adequate matte white color

Sprue F: Parts for the main/secondary masts, crow's nest, and pirate flags; all have low color accuracy

 A lack of color accuracy translates into more work during the painting stage. And I don't just mean the obvious work of having to paint the parts. For example, the side hulls of the ship actually have many different colored sections to it e.g. white, brown, and metal. Unfortunately these side hull parts were molded entirely in one color i.e. brown. Lots of work lie ahead if I am to make it color accurate.

Sprue G: Single part making up the bottom hull; low color accuracy as spine should be white

Sprue H: Single molded piece that makes up the secondary sail; it also has low color accuracy

Sprue I: Parts making up the display stand/base; color accuracy decent but needs repainting regardless

Sprue J: Riggings and ropes; all have low color accuracy and needs to be repainted

Sprue H: Parts that make up three orange trees; good base color but still needs additional painting

Miscellaneous part: a string that makes the anchor rope

 Bandai's idea of achieving color accuracy is to provide lots of sticker decals (see below) to compensate for parts being molded in the wrong hue. They did that for the white/metal sections of the ships hull, the cabin windows, the masthead's eyes, the label for the display base, the red stripes of the secondary sail, and the pirate flags. That is a lot of sticker decals.

Sticker Decals: Used for white railings and spine of hull; for cabin windows; for masthead eyes, and for base label

Sticker decals: Used for pirate flags; red stripes on secondary sail; and metal bands on side hull

 Meanwhile, Bandai also provided water and sticker decals as an alternative to stickers for the Straw Hat Pirate symbol on the flags. Water decals are self explanatory. But the pirate symbol sticker decals differ from the earlier pirate flag stickers in that only the symbol is a sticker decal and you would still have to paint the flag black. You would've noticed the earlier stickers were for the entire flag i.e. symbol together with the black background. There is also a water decal and sticker decal for the huge pirate symbol that adorns the main sail of Going Merry. What I aim to do is use all the water decals provided, and paint the color inaccurate sections instead of using the sticker decals.

Water decals of the Straw Hat Pirate Symbol on the main sail and pirate flags

Sticker decals of the Straw Hat Pirate Symbol on the main sail and pirate flags

 Below is a video of the Unboxing and Pre-Assembly Review for those of you who prefer to watch the process instead of reading about it. Please do subscribe to my YouTube channel i.e. FourEyedMonster Miniatures if you find my content of interest to you. 

 Where previously trepidation took center stage, I now look forward to getting started with a painted-build of the Going Merry. My plan is first to complete this pirate ship before the live action version of One Piece airs on Netflix by end-August. Following that I will start work on the miniature pirate crew one figure at a time. But I am getting ahead of myself. First the ship, then the crew. And I'll have to get started soon as there is lots to do, and always never enough time to do it. Speaking of time, thank you for spending yours to read my blog. Until my next update, please be well and be happy.